Is Book Publicity Worth The Investment?
Selling enough copies of your book to quit your full time job and make a living as an author is not as easy of a task as you would hope. You can post your book on a variety of websites such as Amazon, GoodReads, and Shelfari, and attract new customers here and there, but the odds of your book selling millions, thousands, or even hundreds of copies without a complete and effective book publicity campaign are very low. You will need to invest in various public relations strategies to create a big enough buzz to get people to want to buy your book(s). Authors often ask ‘Is a book publicist worth the investment?’ Our answer is yes, and here’s why:
Hiring a publicist will increase awareness and book sales. A book publicist will help get the word out about your book, provide valuable media opportunities to promote your book, and save you time. There are many short-term and long-term benefits of investing in book publicity services.
Faster Recognition
A good book publicist can spread the word about your book and have an impressive number of copies sold within months. A publicist has established relationships with media contacts including book reviewers, editors, reporters, bloggers, producers, and more to secure press placements, book reviews, and interviews, which will bring wide exposure in a short amount of time. A publicist coordinates all media exposure such as television and radio interviews, newspaper articles, and features in magazines.
Saves Time
Hiring a publicist to handle promoting your book will save you a lot of time. Publicists have the media contacts needed to secure media coverage. For example, most publicists use a PR software called Cision, which costs about $3,000/year for a database directory of all media contacts. Also, publicists are experts at writing media pitches, press releases, and other PR materials to promote your book. It would be very time consuming for an author to manually compile a list of media contacts to pitch, create a pitch, distribute press releases, and write other PR materials. The amount of valuable time you save hiring a publicist to promote your book, instead of having to do it yourself, definitely makes it worth the investment.
Higher Sales
With an ongoing book publicity campaign, your book sales will continuously increase. In a six month period to a year after having hired a PR expert, you will have sold more copies of your book(s) than you would have sold in a number of years using limited distribution outlets and minimal marketing strategies. A publicist can help maximize your opportunities to sell more books over the years through online publicity. Most online articles, press releases, and other press placements are permanent links, meaning that you can continuously generate book sales from the press placements your publicist secures for years after they were originally posted.
More Distribution Options
The more copies you sell the more eligible your book becomes to be shelved by larger and more well-known distributors. Once your book qualifies to be sold through major distribution outlets, your pool of potential buyers will increase.
Higher Demand for Next Release
A publicist can help build up your online presence so that when you release your next book it will be easier to promote and sell. Book publicity helps start to build a reader base that will continually grow. Your publicist can get the buzz going so that fans will be anticipating your next release. Having done a fantastic job of making your first book a major success, your publicist will be in a position to get even more impressive results out of your next book.
To conclude, book publicity is worth the investment because it provides faster recognition, more distribution options, and higher demand for your next book release, as well as saves times and increases book sales. With a qualified publicist, the sales of your book release in the first year will already have justified the cost of book publicity services. At Book Publicity Services, we have talented and experienced book publicists for all types of genres who are able to help publicize your book. To learn more, visit https://bookpublicityservices.com/.